Microwave circuits have traditionally been built using individual thinfilm components (e.g., microstrips or bent microstrips) that are then assembled with one or more active circuit die into a machined metal package that is commonly referred to as “a gold brick”. These machined packages often make up a substantial fraction of the cost of the final completed circuit. For simpler brick machining and improved impedance matching, the thinfilm components are ideally the same thickness as the die itself. However, high frequency microwave circuits translate to high power . . . high power translates to high heat dissipation . . . high heat dissipation translates to very thin die . . . thin die translate to thin, thinfilm components . . . thin, thinfilm components translate to fragile substrates . . . and fragile substrates translate to low-yield, high-cost processing.